Where in the Horror are They Now? Alice Krige!

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

ALICE KRIGE

THEN: This week I’ve had ghostly thoughts on my mind. In fact, much of what I’m doing here at AITH revolves around hauntings. So this has me thinking, what are some of the most memorable stories about apparitions and spooky unexplained horrors? One that came to mind was a classy affair called GHOST STORY with Fred Astaire, John Houseman, Melvyn Douglas and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as older gentleman sharing a shameful secret. Unfortunately for them, something from their past has caught up and is ready for revenge. And there she was… Ms. Alice Krige. While the actress had an alluring beauty, she also made for a pretty damn good villain. She was able to convey a beautiful sense of vulnerability, and then she could turn into something vengeful and deadly. It was my first memory of Alice, and it stuck with me.

Alice is a unique beauty. Yet she also happens to be crazy talented. Aside from GHOST STORY, she was also featured in the Best Picture winner of 1981, CHARIOTS OF FIRE. After the mix of high-brow and horror, the actress took on a number of television guest spots and even a religious drama with Richard Gere called KING DAVID (1985). And in 1987, she appeared in one of my personal favorite Mickey Rourke flicks, BARFLY (1987). This impressive resume with vastly different projects seemed to predict that Alice would have a pretty varied career. And it wasn’t long before she took on a dramatic take on the creation of Frankenstein.

In HAUNTED SUMMER (1988), she starred opposite Eric Stoltz, Alex Winters and Laura Dern. In the film, Krige portrayed Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and she was terrific in the role. While the film explored the same story as Ken Russell’s GOTHIC (1986), this tale took a far less macabre approach. The feature was more on the dramatic side, as opposed to the disturbing horrors created by Russell. However, both films offer interesting takes on the story. And yes, this further proved what an amazing talent Krige was. If you are interested in Mary Shelley in any way, I’d recommend giving this a watch. In fact, I may have to re-visit this one soon to see if it still holds up.

After having a haunted summer, the actress portrayed Patsy Cline in a TV-movie called Baja Oklahoma, also in 1988. Next, she appeared in the Jeff Bridges romance, SEE YOU IN THE MORNING in 1989. And then came a series of television guest spots and TV-movies. Yet in 1992 she brought a little bit of danger to the Stephen King scripted SLEEPWALKERS. While this bizarro flick didn’t really grab me with my initial viewing, it has grown on me over the years. Maybe when I caught it on cable the first time I wasn’t in the right frame of mind for weird incestuous beasts. It also helps that it stars, along with Krige and Brian Krause, the lovely Mädchen Amick as the film’s leading lady.

One thing that is more than a little cool about Alice is her work in sci-fi, specifically in the Star Trek universe. The actress took on the role of the Borg Queen in STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT in 1996, the video game Star Trek: Armada II and on Star Trek: Voyager in 2001. Later on she played the same role in Star Trek: The Experience – Borg Invasion 4D, an attraction in Las Vegas. Yet she wasn’t simply a one trick Borg. In the mini-series Children of Dune, she portrayed Lady Jessica Atreides. To be fair, I never got the chance to check this one out, but it was always on my radar. Anybody else see this? Is it worth searching for?

Over the years, Alice has remained a regular player in genre films. She starred in SUPERSTITION in 2001, REIGN OF FIRE in 2002, SHADOW OF FEAR in 2004, STAY ALIVE in 2006 and of course, horror fans may be aware of her work as Christabella in SILENT HILL (also in 2006). When it came to television, she appeared on Deadwood in 2005, two episodes of The 4400 in 2006, Dirty Sexy Money in 2008 and Midsomer Murders in 2009. And then in 2010 she joined Nicolas Cage in THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE in 2010, along with Jay Baruchel. Then came appearances on the small screen with Waking the Dead, MI-5 and the TV-movie Page Eight, all in 2011. And she also happened to be featured in a little movie called THOR: THE DARK WORLD as Eir… Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

NOW: Alice Krige is one hell of a good actress. And her unusual beauty helped give her a very exciting career, with a number of different projects. Funnily enough, before deciding on looking into her career, I found that she still seems to work all the time. In 2014-2015 she had a series called Tyrant. She was in two episodes of Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime, and she appeared in the drama The Syndicate. According to IMDB she will be starring in a war film called SHINGETSU, although it is currently listed in “post-production” with a 2015 release date? So we will have to see about that one.

You have to give credit to such an accomplished actor, especially when so much of their career was in horror and sci-fi. Ever since she scared the crap out of me in GHOST STORY, I’ve been fascinated by her. Whether it is her work as the Borg Queen, or her horror entires such as SILENT HILL or SLEEPWALKERS, Ms. Krige is certainly one of the classiest horror talents around. Strangely enough, I don’t feel that we’ve seen the last of Alice when it comes to the scary stuff.